Sindre Bangstad
Research Professor, KIFOSindre Bangstad is a Norwegian social anthropologist, and Research Professor at KIFO (Institute for Church, Religion, and Worldview Research), in Oslo.
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A joint initiative between the University of Bergen
and CMI – Chr. Michelsen Institute
Academic Freedom and IHRA’s Working Definition of Antisemitism
30.04.2025
12:15 - 13:15English
What are the implications of the IHRA WDA 2016 for academic freedom, particularly for academics in Middle Eastern Studies?
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license In 2016, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) adopted a so-called ‘legally non-binding working definition of antisemitism’ (IHRA WDA 2016) under pressure from Israel and the USA.
Numerous experts have concluded that the definition poses a threat to both academic freedom and freedom of expression. Yet none of this has prevented 43 countries, including 26 EU States, the UK, Canada, Israel, the USA and Australia, from adopting it and using it as ‘soft law’ also applied at universities.
In Germany, academics like Holberg Laureate Achille Mbembe, Professor Ghassan Hage and Professor Eyal Weizman have had engagements cancelled with reference to IHRA WDA 2016. In the USA, the IHRA WDA 2016 features prominently in the Trump administration’s assault on US universities and pro-Palestinian activists in the name of ‘combatting antisemitism.’
In this lecture, Sindre Bangstad will explore the implications of the IHRA WDA 2016 for academic freedom, particularly for academics in Middle Eastern Studies. He argues that Norway should not adopt the IHRA WDA 2016, considering the severe consequences faced by academics in countries where this definition has been enforced under state pressure.
Facebook eventEvent info.
Bergen GlobalJekteviksbakken 31, Bergen
30.04.2025
12:15 - 13:15
English
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Pelle Valentin Olsen
Associate Professor, UiBPelle Valentin Olsen is a cultural, social, and transnational historian of the modern Middle East. His research and teaching focus on the history of leisure, labor, gender, sexuality, popular culture, and cultural production.
Read moreSindre Bangstad
Research Professor, KIFO
Sindre Bangstad is a Norwegian social anthropologist, and Research Professor at KIFO (Institute for Church, Religion, and Worldview Research), in Oslo.
Bangstad specialises in the anthropology of Islam, but has also published extensively on racism, hate speech and Islamophobia. He was Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Teaching of Anthropology at Princeton University (2022-3). He has published more than ten monographs and edited volumes.
Pelle Valentin Olsen
Associate Professor, UiB
Pelle Valentin Olsen is a cultural, social, and transnational historian of the modern Middle East. His research and teaching focus on the history of leisure, labor, gender, sexuality, popular culture, and cultural production.
He focusses specifically on Iraq, but his work simultaneously explores transregional and transnational connections, highlighting everyday perspectives and voices often left out by traditional political and state-centered histories.
He received his PhD with honors from the University of Chicago in 2020. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Roskilde University in Denmark, where he worked on the ‘Entangled Histories of Palestine and the Global New Left’ project.
Bergen Global is a joint initiative between the University of Bergen and Chr. Michelsen Institute that addresses global challenges.
